"The biggest reason for Brooks' Ubuntu inclination isapplication availability. If there's a piece of Linux-supportingsoftware that you want to run, there's a good chance that it's beenpackaged up in a ready-to-install format for Ubuntu Linux. What's more,of all the operating systems he's used or reviewed, Ubuntu offers thebest set of tools for acquiring, installing, updating and removingapplications."

"many companies, government agencies, and educational institutions canchuck at least some of them. Those based on XP -- or Windows 2000,which still has a huge installed base in government agencies -- canlook to big savings on licensing, hardware, and training costs."

"Alternatives to traditional PC technologies: Firms are feeling real painover the costs of maintaining PCs. Seventy percent of enterprises and 74percent of SMBs said they hope to lower PC costs with alternative technologiessuch as various forms of desktop or client virtualization."

"According to the RFI, Canada is exploring no-cost software options onthe desktop as well as the server, in categories that include operatingsystems, office suites, and automation systems."

"Respondents are asked to comment on the potential for hidden costs, howto evaluate and manage compliance with open source licenses, and howopen standards and interoperability should factor into thedecision-making process."

Meanwhile the Dutch government minister for Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk said: "Open standards offer long term benefits, including interoperabilityand lower costs. At times a migration to such software can be tricky,but public administrations will be supported in these cases", theminister wrote in reply to questions regarding software procurement bythe city of Utrecht.

The Finnish governmentwants the country's public administrations to increase their use ofopen source and open standards. On Monday the government published apolicy document to help public bodies with procurement and deployment. The French police, in the year 2008 alone deployed 5000 new workstations, allrunning on Ubuntu. Every new workstation will ship with the same setup.During 2009 the Gendarmerie is planning to migrate close to 15.000workstations in total.[Read More]

"Under the Open Source, Open Standards and Re–Use: Government Action Plan the UK government will specify requirements by reference to open standards and require compliance with open standards in solutions where feasible.1 The government indicated it will support the use of ODF. It will also work to ensure that government information is available in open formats, and it will make this a required standard for government websites."

Seventeen national and eight provincial governments around the world have now officially endorsed ODF for document exchange.

Microsoft CEO put Linux ahead of Apple as the top competitor to Microsoft Windows (desktop) operating system and acknowledged share gains by both at their annual Wall Street briefing today. "Linux, you could see on the slide, and Apple has certainly increased its share somewhat."

"I assume we're going to see Android-based, Linux-based laptops, inaddition to phones. We'll see Google more as a competitor in thedesktop operating system business than we ever have before."

According to Microsoft watchIDC reported that there is a surge in Netbook purchases in Europe.Around 3.6 million in Europe, 5 million or so, worldwide in 4Q,2008.CIO.com reportsthat "according to ABI research, 16M were sold in 2008; 39M will besold this year; and 139M by 2013".

So?

Netbooks on Linux end up around $50-75 less expensive. Around 30% of the Netbooks sold are on Linux.

Reduce costs, lower TCO, <1year ROI?

Here is the Liberate - Migrate - Virtualize recipe

Liberate:

- free up money in IT budget by taking alternate procurement strategy: http://www.ibm.com/software/info/liberate - more than 600 companies have freed up $3.5B over the last 3 years by executing this strategy

So this is about reducing software license, hardware costs, and operational costs. And yes, you also benefit from virtual collaboration -- travel, phone, search/discovery, etc. etc...

Then of course, how can you collaborate smarter? What does it mean to People, their workspace, and the business processes and relevant information sources?

By making the right (timely, with the right available person, with the required knowledge) connections, and establishing deeper relationships (trust, motivation). It is about interconnections.

By figuring out the best business processes you can real time enable, not only with presence and bots and chat/web conferencing but also tying it to voice, mobility, wireless, and IP telephony. Instrumenting it right. Adding smartness to it.

By innovating - nurturing and transforming talent through participatory community dynamics, anytime, anywhere, using any device

By optimizing the workspace and drive out costs -- all those costs I described above. By doing the Liberate-Migrate-Virtualize, leveraging Open Collaboration Client Solution, open virtual clients, Symphony, Linux...

This does require cognition oriented architectures that breed new intelligence that can provide the fine balance between self-service and automation.